James Skemp's StrivingLife

A wonderful short story

When Enslaved: Odyssey to the West was first being discussed I was keeping my eye on it, as I had picked up Heavenly Sword when I picked up my PlayStation 3 and thorougly enjoyed it. However, after lackluster reviews I opted to wait until I picked it up. Unfortunately, it took this long to finally do so.

The gameplay consists of combat and exploration, and I found both to be rather satisfying. The former does allow you to get by in normal difficulty without too much strategy, which in this case I liked perfectly fine since I was playing it mostly for the story.

The exploration is extremely fluid, allowing you to quickly and easily move around, as opposed to having to move to just the right spot, or hold the left stick in just the right way.

But what I really enjoyed from the game was the story. I had no intention of finishing the game as quickly as I did (over the course of two days, maybe hitting double digit hours), but I had a very hard time putting the game down after completing a chapter. In fact, the only time I was disappointed with the story was at the very end, since I felt the ending was far too abrupt, and expected for there to be an extrended, or true ending if the game was completed on hard (which doesn't appear to be the case).

Each of the main characters has personality, something I also got from Heavenly Sword, and by the end of the journey, despite it being so short, I actually felt I had some understanding of each of the characters.

In regards to length, while it's true the game is short, it doesn't feel rushed, and there's enough to keep you playing for a little while longer, such as finding collectibles or purchasing the DLC, if you so choose.

If you enjoyed the experience that was Heavenly Sword I believe you'd enjoy this experience as well. If the combat appeals to you, I'd also recommend picking up a copy. The climbing/exploration is fairly simple, so if you'd like a complex experience in that regard, or if you want a complex combat system, you'll want to look elsewhere.

Overall, I give Enslaved: Odyssey to the West 4 of 5 stars, and I will be going through the game at least one more time.

While I had heard of Julie Lerman and her book Programming Entity Framework, after the release of code first I was on the fence on just how much I would get out of the existing book. With the release of Programming Entity Framework: Code First I knew I'd learn something, so I picked up an electronic copy (PDF) and started digging in.

First, I should mention that I initially started working with Entity Framework via existing databases. I tried the pre-4 version, but ultimately tried to stay away until EF4 was released. I liked the Visual Studio interface to work with a database via EF, and created one site, still in production, that uses it, but I like being closer to the metal.

With the release of EF Code First I started digging in immediately, using it to create functionality on one site already in production, and most recently started working on another site, for eventual release into production. However, on this latter site I was working with more advanced models and kept running into weird EF issues.

After a few chapters in Programming Entity Framework: Code First I had determined what my issue was, and how to fix it, which alone is worth the price. In addition, while I understood data annotations, I know have a pretty firm grasp on what I can do via the Fluent API, and how I can better control what EF does when it creates the data tables to store my model.

The size of the book may initially throw you off, but I honestly believe that this book contains as much material as a book almost twice the size. In addition, while I came into the book having already worked with Entity Framework, and code first, I believe this book can easily be picked up by someone new to both technologies.

Julia Lerman will be releasing another book, Programming Entity Framework: DbContext, and I will honestly be picking that book up as well. At this point, however, I'm still on the fence on whether I'll be picking up the 'primary' book, Programming Entity Framework, but I'm sure at some point I will.

This book will definitely have select chapters read again, and will server as a good reference, so I give this book 5 of 5 stars.

Over the top antics delivers just what I needed

After the bombardment of commercials online for this game, I had it on my list to pick up after the price dropped into the $20 range. However, since PlayStation 3 users can get a free copy of Saints Row 2 by picking it up before January or February of next year, and the price at retailers had dropped to $40, I decided to pick up a copy early. And Rooster Teeth's videos on the game influenced me fairly heavily as well.

Before I go any further I should note that I've played GTA 3 and Vice City on the PlayStation 2. However, I don't think I ever finished the story of either, since it just didn't work for me, and I generally got bored doing what I felt was the same thing, over and over again. Now I generally play RPGs, so I'm used to grinding, but these two GTA games just didn't match my expectations. I might put Prototype in this grouping as well, for a game of a similar type, that I had a blast playing because of the variety.

Note also that this is also my first Saints Row game, but based upon reviews I had previously read, understand that when I play Saints Row 2 I may consider it a step up.

Saints Row: The Third is so over the top that my 31+ hours of play (so far - I haven't even touched co-op which looks like a blast) were an absolute joy. To be honest, the humor almost turned me off from picking up the game, but I came in expecting it, and found no issue with it.

The variety of side missions (activities) matches this, so I find myself actually challenged by what I need to do, instead of finding the desire to actually start. The story itself might be short, but I personally found it be rather long, as I played these side activities between main story missions. I just finished both endings of the game, after approximately 31 hours, and have approximately 85% of the game complete. Perhaps the story would be over in a few hours if you ran through, but having done this I'd say the story and the rest of the game meld rather well together, and recommend this path.

At this point I fully expect that most people have either seen me saying GTA isn't fun, or that I haven't played the previous Saints Row games and assume I'm going to jumping up and down over this game, and have given the review a thumbs down. If you're still reading that suggests to me that you might be like me. If you are, and can overlook a bit of crude humor, I'd say give a few gameplay videos a look and if you like what you see, pick up Saints Row. By the end of the game you'll be so overpowered that you'll rarely even take damage, will never have to reload, and will have infinite ammo for all your weapons. But despite that you'll still have a blast blowing things up, flying around corners with a hostage in the car, and perhaps even starting the story over with a new character, in a co-op (like I'll be doing). And at points you'll probably laugh, and you'll generally be smiling.